


In The Moonlight

by isatistinctoria



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, First War with Voldemort, Gen, Hogwarts Era, Post-Sirius Black's Prank on Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27818287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isatistinctoria/pseuds/isatistinctoria
Summary: In the summer after the Prank, Remus and Sirius, both unable to sleep, go on a nighttime stroll around the Potters' garden.
Relationships: Sirius Black & Remus Lupin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4
Collections: Monthly Wolfstar Drabble Challenge





	In The Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> My first contribution to fandom in over a decade, this drabble is taken from a longer fic I'm working on. Thank you for reading!

Sirius tosses and turns in bed. Every time he closes his eyes he sees Remus’s face, and the knowledge that he's sleeping a few metres away, as part of James Potter’s misguided peacemaking attempt, isn’t helping. He gets up and throws on a dressing gown. Large patches of moonlight illuminate the house as he creeps out of his bedroom and down the stairs in perfect silence. However, as he gets to the kitchen, he finds Remus, in James’s borrowed pajamas, silhouetted against a bay window.

"Up for a walk?" he murmurs, his eyes glinting in the darkness. Sirius nods, and they slip out the back door.

It’s past midnight, and there’s a slight chill in the air as the two boys walk around the Potters’ garden. The light from the waning moon falls on Remus’s tired face, illuminating the ends of his hair like so many silver fireflies, and for a moment, Sirius knows what he wants to say. "I really am sorry, you know, about the--the Snape thing."

Remus takes a shuddering breath and starts walking again, Sirius trailing him. After a few minutes of silence, he asks quietly, "Sirius, have you heard of Fenrir Greyback?"

Sirius is taken aback. "I--no, I don't know that name. Who is he?"

"Well, he's a werewolf." They’ve reached a bench at the edge of a square pond with water lilies, and Remus sits down. Sirius joins him, perplexed. "He's the werewolf that bit me."

"What? How d’you know?” asks Sirius, shocked at the revelation. “Is--is there a record somewhere?"

"My father told me, last summer. He's a monster. Not in the way that I am--" Sirius shakes his head and tries to cut in. "No, don't interrupt. I’m a Dark creature, but Greyback is a real monster; he bites people on purpose, to hurt them."

"Moony--"

"Let me finish, please." There’s a touch of irritation in his voice, and Sirius falls silent. "Greyback has allied himself with Voldemort. That's why we're hearing more rumours of werewolf attacks these days. My dad--" The strangest look of resentment crosses Remus's face. "My dad has told me they're very concerned, over at the Ministry." He seems to weigh each word, gazing at the pond as he speaks. "Voldemort uses Greyback to punish or frighten people. He uses him as a weapon."

Sirius can now see where this is going. He feels the shame and self-loathing well up inside him.

"I know you didn't mean to, because you didn't think it through, but that night you used me like Voldemort uses Greyback," Remus speaks the words Sirius was dreading.

"I get it, I'm--" But he doesn’t know what he is. His entire being is sagging with the weight of his guilt.

Remus stands up and walks around the stone bench. He reaches out as if to place a hand on Sirius’s shoulder, but seems to think better of it. "We're good, Padfoot."

Sirius turns around, wanting to hold him back, but he’s gone.


End file.
